Chrono Book Reviews, Recommendations, and Deals

The personal annoyance of spending money on a hardcopy, and then when you go to shelve it you realize that you already have the exact same book in the exact same edition? I mean, if it’s two different editions (British vs American, with different livery) or two different bindings (hardback vs mass-market paperback) then that’s another thing entirely, but with even paperbacks costing upside of $8 to $10 these days, accidentally buying another copy of something you already own isn’t a cheap mistake.

6 Likes

Today I fought my way through rain and cold to get these. :blush:

I swore a few months back that I wouldn’t buy any new books, at all.

However, these were 80% off, and I ended up paying less for them in reais (I paid R$ 9,81/each) than I would have in dollars (US $9.99/each).

Which was just absurdidly good. Plus, Tiffany Aching is bae and Pratchett is, at least, in the “semi-god” tier.

No clue how I’m gonna pay for them, but that’s life: sometimes you just gotta live and enjoy Pratchett, and worry about nothing at all. :grinning:

10 Likes

Here is a list of Oldies…Surprisingly, I only knew a few. Gonna have to “beef up” my sci fi sorry butt. Some of these are free on Project Gutenburg… Like this:

5 Likes

I didn’t even realize there was a Metro 2035 but lo and behold, there it was at our humble local library sitting along the copy of Metro 2034 I had previously read! Feels good to be back in the Metro.

Also as an update to my previous post: Our library had a pitiful selection of Irvine Welsh (only an English version of Filth) so that project still remains halted until I feel like putting in a request to have them delivered from a larger nearby library or go there myself sometime.

I’m also officially done with Lovecraft, at least for a (longer) while. I’ve read almost everything he has written anyway (some translated, some in English and some in both ways) and I have to say I’ve gotten somewhat bored of his style of writing and ignorant protagonists. He did set a great foundation for future generations (and his peers) to build upon so I can’t help but respect the man and his work. His works have a tendency to put me to sleep nowadays, but in those dreams I continue to envision the things he himself dreamed about. Ia! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!

In the same shelf (catogorized as horror) with Lovecraft anthologies I spotted The King in Yellow and would recommend it to anyone who has read and enjoyed Lovecraft’s stuff. Only read the stories that have to do with The King in Yellow though, the latter half of the book (in my opinion of course) is much less interesting.

6 Likes

Do You think I can read Metro 2034 without having read 1-2033?

IA IA IA! -1d5 san. Play was excellent but left little to the readers imagination.

6 Likes

I was thinking of resurrecting this thread earlier with a suggestion to kick it into gear again as I enjoyed reading about what and why you all enjoy. I used to be a big reader in my youth but not any more for a host of different reasons I wont go into here.

The idea of a book club is something that never really struck a chord with me as imposing limitations to how much I am allowed to consume of any media didn’t seem like an enjoyable idea to me. Getting a number of people to pick up the same book at the same time also seems like a bit of a fools errand.

I do have a suggestion and recommendation however that some or at least one of you might find interesting and could be a basis to start a book club-esque sort of thing around.

Podcasts!

Not just any podcasts though. For a while many years ago now I listened almost weekly to this podcast that bought up short stories from novice and experienced writers alike and published them as a weekly audiobook, they would range from 30-60 minutes or thereabouts and most of the time really quite good stories. It worked out for them so they branched out into 3 different genres, sci-fi, horror and fantasy.

So maybe if you’d all find it interesting we could have a listen to them as they are published and discuss what we think about them. Of course they have their own forums for that particular activity, but we could do it too.

If that sounds interesting to any of you you can find them here:
For your weekly short stories in science fiction,

fantasy,

or horror.

*It was many years since I actively listened to ether of them though and they at least used to be good. If you don’t find them enjoyable lets just pretend they’ve gotten bad recently.

6 Likes

Sorry to say but 1-2033 are compulsory reading before being able to apreciate the world and characters of Metro 2034. SciFi (and Fantasy) authors sure love making their series’ as long as possible :stuck_out_tongue: .

But seriously speaking, I guess you could read 2034 without having read the original. Some things might not make as much sense or lack the depth they would have had you read the original, but thinking back, it could work as a standalone work.

5 Likes

Me too but since I’ve been reading StormLight Archives for the past couple of months I don’t really have anything to talk about, and it would really kill me to see this thread go down.

3 Likes

If we were reading the same things and discussing it, the thread might not die, or if we could expand it to general literary discussion (discussing writing, characterization, etc etc) as well it might help.

4 Likes

I recommend people read Kurt Vonnegut’s Galapagos… Although certainly an odd book, I quite enjoyed it.

3 Likes

I’m sorry, but I have not read this thread entirely. My recommendation is thou:

Le petit prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – Wikipedia

3 Likes

Because it’s October…:ghost:

Love it! Book-To-Scream Adaptations :scream:

6 Likes

The wildest thing just happened. I received a package from Jersey (US) on the mail, with NO IDEA WHO IT WAS FROM.

This was inside it:

GET THIS:

After messaging basically every single one of my friends and receiving answers like “I totally did not send this to you”, I thought about the date and realized it was really close to the return date of my coworkers that came to Brazil for the aviation fair I work at.

So I e-mailed one co-worker I literally talked with for ONE HOUR, for the FIRST TIME EVER, during ONE DAY of the fair, about how much I wanna become an astronaut. Like… it’s the biggest dream in my life and my biggest aspiration ever.

AND THE FRIGGIN’ GUY ACTUALLY WENT AND ORDERED ME THIS BOOK :exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head:

GUYS THIS IS ONE OF THE NICEST THINGS THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ANYONE EVER I AM-

AFSDHFSJKDFHLSJKFAHJKFHDJKJKDF

Guys I seriously feel like walking on sunshine right now and there are dancing daisies everywhere and I swear I didn’t do drugs or anything omg I just had to share with you guys because my mind is blown and life is surreal and what is everything.

12 Likes

…erm, how did he get your address? :grimacing:

10 Likes

How did I missed this thread?

My last book that I’ve read was “Inferno by Dan Brown” it has been a while since I read a book - 2015 thereabouts -. Yep, I know… I know… Is a long time to be without reading any book :frowning:

I thought to buy a Kindle to increase my list of books, such as practice my reading and vocabulary with English versions books. What do you guys think about it?

6 Likes

Hah! I’ve been working for this company for 5 years.

1 They need my address for some international billing stuff
2 It’s pretty much a family business even though it’s a prominent company, so he could just ask anyone in accounting and easily get it.

There are other reasons that I can’t explain well enough without exposing myself.

:hugs:


@Silk fantastic idea! Their built-in vocabulary helped me a lot when reading García Marquéz for the first time, so I highly recommend it.

Good tip is re-reading a book you love and already read in your native language, so you don’t struggle so much with understanding the plot, and can focus on the prose. It’s one weight off your back and guaranteed to keep you hooked if it’s some material you like.

I say that from experience, as one of my students greatly improved her English through my indication of re-reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, this time in English instead of Portuguese. :blush:

6 Likes

A shame there are no true horror books to read for Halloween. As a kid all I had to do was pick up a Goosebump’s book and have fun, even if it didn’t truly terrify me it creeped me out sometimes, but nowadays it seems impossible to find something of merit. Most of them are YA books with romance in them or something, and others like Carrie aren’t even horror books.

A dying genre perhaps?

5 Likes

I imagine that writing horror books would be quite difficult. Books like goosebumps would only be made, not to give a fright or really terrify you, but as the name suggests, just give you goosebumps. A book meant for horror could make your skin crawl, or just make you very uncomfortable, but nothing like a movie could do.

Or I may be completely wrong and their is a terrifying book out there. if you know one I would like to take a look at it.

4 Likes

The only ones I can recall that gave me the willies is Misery. Oh, and Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin is pretty horrible (at least I thought so when I first read it) and some others like The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum (which horrified me beyond belief), but I suppose nothing specifically meant for to terrorize you like a good Halloween/horror film does, but just terrorize you in other ways like emotionally. Then again, that’s what I count in the genre. I don’t have to have monster related horror books or movies during Halloween, so long as its scary in its way.

I’ve actually picked up the book version of The Haunting of Hill House (by Shirley Jackson), so maybe it’ll be what I’m looking for. :slight_smile:

5 Likes

Thank you so much @coralinecastell for that tip :hearts:

5 Likes